According to Twitch Tony Jaa has retired from films. It remains unclear why he retired but on Friday, May 28 - Jaa rode an elephant to a Buddhist temple in Surin, Thailand, where he shaved his head, took vows, and was officially ordained as a Buddhist monk.

I think after the troubles of making Ong Bak 2 he probably did not have the heart for films anymore, he may make a return to films one day and we still have Ong Bak 3 to look forward too but it could be the last time we see muay thai, elephant riding madness.

Shocking news Guillermo del Toro has left 'The Hobbit', he had been working on the script and preproduction for the two films with Peter Jackson for almost two years. Today he announced that he was quiting as director, he posted a statement on TheOneRing.net to explain his departure:

"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming "The Hobbit," I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I've been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director."

Executive Producer Peter Jackson added:

"We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave the Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone's control – has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn't feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I've ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him. Guillermo's strong vision is engrained into the scripts and designs of these two films, which are extremely fortunate to be blessed with his creative DNA."

"Guillermo is co-writing the Hobbit screenplays with Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and myself, and happily our writing partnership will continue for several more months, until the scripts are fine tuned and polished. New Line and Warner Bros will sit down with us this week, to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for the Hobbit. We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work."

This is another casualty of MGM and 'The Hobbit' is on indefinite hold until the issues with MGM's ownership are resolved. Peter Jackson will not step into the directors chair but will look for another director to helm the film, a quote from Jackson's manager Ken Kamins explains:

"Peter has and has had obligations and commitments to other films that would make it impossible for him to direct The Hobbit at this time, even if it was offered, which it hasn't been. "I've been quietly working on setting up a film for him to direct while Guillermo would have been directing The Hobbit. What you saw in their respective statements must be taken at face value. All of that said, Peter and Fran's commitment to The Hobbit is total and they will do everything necessary to protect the franchise and the investment made by New Line, Warners and MGM."

During a visit to an art gallery with Amy, the Doctor's interest is caught by the painting The Church at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh: there's a face in the window of the church – a curious, shadowed creepy face with nasty eyes. The Doctor is worried; he's sure he has seen the face somewhere before, but how? There is only one thing for it: a trip in the TARDIS back to 1888, so the Doctor can find out from the artist himself.

The episode is written by Richard Curtis and features Bill Nighy as the Curator.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Dennis Hopper has died at the age of 74 following a battle with prostate cancer.

Hopper directed, co-wrote and starred in the 1969 classic road movie Easy Rider, aswell as acting in epics like Apocalypse Now, Rebel Without a Cause, True Romance and Blue Velvet.

Hopper died on Saturday morning surrounded by friends and family at his home in Venice, California. "Dennis Hopper died this morning at 8:15 am from complications of metastasised prostate cancer. He died at home in Venice surrounded by family and friends," manager Sam Maydew said in a statement.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Here's your first look at the animated sequel to Stephen Chow's sci-fi comedy 'CJ7.' Hong Kong director Toe Yuen is in the directors chair for the film with Chow producing. Most of the original cast is back to provide the Mandarin voices except for Chow.

'Mr Nice' is the true story of Howard Marks(Rhys Ifans), an elite British drug smuggler who during the mid 1980s, Howard Marks had forty-three aliases, eighty-nine phone lines, and twenty five companies trading throughout the world.

At the height of his career, he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons from Pakistan and Thailand to America and Canada and had contact with organisations as diverse as the CIA, MI6, the IRA, and the Mafia.

Knight and Day Here's the second trailer for James Mangold upcoming action comedy film 'Knight and Day' starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

Miller (Tom Cruise) is a secret agent who goes on a blind date with unlucky-in-love June Havens (Cameron Diaz), and ends up pulling her into a serious yet comedic journey to protect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source.

Speaking at a press conference for his latest production, Splice, Guillermo del Toro has confirmed that 'The Hobbit' is delayed until MGM sorts out its financial troubles.

"It's not greenlit," said del Toro, "That's categorical... We've been caught in a very tangled negotiation... There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved. They do hold a considerable portion of the rights."

"We have designed all the creatures," he said, "We've designed the sets and the wardrobe. We have done animatics and planned battles sequences.... We are very, very prepared for when it is finally triggered."

Guillermo del Toro addressed rumors that the film may shoot in 3D saying, while 3D remains a possiblity, it has been discussed "literally once" in the production offices and it is not being planned at this time. The current production budget has been drawn without 3D in mind.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer has been reported giving a update on the studios plans for the DC comic universe films, he reiterated that the studio is viewing a July 20, 2012 release date for Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie & a 2012 holiday season release for the Superman reboot movie.

The next DC superhero that may see his name on the big screen is the Flash as the film is close to being greenlit. Meyer also mentioned that 'Aquaman', 'Wonder Woman' and characters from 'MAD magazine' are in development.

Robert Kirkman revealed a few more details of the eagerly anticipated 'The Walking Dead' TV series, in a interview with AICN:

AICN: Hello, sir. How do you do?

Robert Kirkman: I’m doing all right.

AICN:I’m very excited to be talking to you about this because THE WALKING DEAD is my favorite comic book out now, so this is…Robert Kirkman: And rightly so!

AICN: “Damn right it is!”

[Both Laugh]

AICN: But I have to say upfront that I’m at least two months behind, so anything that’s happened after the group got to the “a little too nice looking” suburb I’m not up to date on.

Robert Kirkman: Well I won’t hold that against you and I’ll do my best not to spoil anything.

AICN: Regardless, I’ll be buying them. What’s kind of funny is that the person who turned me onto THE WALKING DEAD five years ago was Frank Darabont. I had talked with him once or twice and then I bumped into him at a premiere and we got to talking about what he was doing and he said, “Hey, I just got this great comic book, a zombie book called THE WALKING DEAD.” He urged me to check it out, I did and then I got hooked. Now you guys are finally actually getting to make the show.

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, it all worked out.

AICN:: I’ve read some of your tweets where you are saying you were location scouting. The impression I get is AMC seems to be really getting behind the show. Is that right?

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, AMC is giving us a huge deal of support and they have already shown that they have a lot of confidence in the show just by immediately picking up the six episode first season without ever even starting to shoot the pilot, which I’m told is fairly unusual, so I’m pretty excited with how the process has been going so far.

Everyone’s moving full speed ahead. That’s kind of a fun thing because like you say you talked to Frank like five years ago and there was a time when it was going to be a pilot at NBC, but that kind of fell through and Frank kind of stayed in the picture and kept in touch with me and did his best to do things behind the scenes to try and get it made because he really likes the comic and I think was really gung-ho about making it.

The funny thing to me is five years went by and it was a little bit more than a year ago when Frank called me and said “Hey, I think AMC is interested in this.” They optioned it in September of last year, I think, and then in January they were like “Hey, we are making the show.” Then from January up until now, it has been nonstop. It just cracks me up how things can move so slowly and then as soon as they decide to make a show it’s like a hundred things happening at once.

So right now it’s like full speed ahead and they are moving forward with this pilot. They are going to be shooting all summer for the first six episodes. Frank is in Atlanta right now doing prep, so he’s kind of hard at it. They start shooting in, I think, a week.

AICN: That’s crazy.

Robert Kirkman: It’s pretty exciting. And then I’ll be going down there for that, so I’m looking forward to it.

AICN: Are you looking to have any sort of involvement in the show?

Robert Kirkman: You know what, I’ll give you guys a little bit of a… I think it might be an exclusive. I don’t think anybody has talked about it yet and I don’t know why it would need to be kept a secret or anything, but I’m actually writing the fourth episode in the six episode first season, so I’ve been spending time in the writer’s room and working with them plumbing out the season.

I just turned in my outline for the fourth episode a week or so ago. I’m going to be pretty involved in the series up to the point of actually writing a few episodes here and there, hopefully as we move into the second season. So yeah, it’s pretty exciting.

AICN: That’s great. It’s got to be a completely different beast than your standard script duties for the book. Is it an hour long show or half hour?

Robert Kirkman: It’s an hour long. It’s a little bit different. I’ve done screenwriting before… Also, the writers room is a very useful tool and they will be there to say, “Yeah, that script doesn’t look like a television script, it looks like a comic script. You need to change this around,” so I’ll be leaning on them quite a bit as I kind of learn the ropes. They are all great guys who are really supportive, so I’m pretty excited about that.

I do need to clarify, just a second ago I said something about “As we move into the second season.” I don’t want to give you the impression that that’s already been picked up or anything. Everyone on the show is just assuming that it’s going to get a second season. We are all pretty optimistic because we know how good the show’s going to be, but I don’t want you to say “Oh, it looks like he slipped!” I don’t want you to think it’s been picked up or anything because that’s definitely not the case.

AICN:No worries. It’s always good to clarify. I wouldn’t have announced it like that or made a big deal of it, but I think you might have had some fans pick up on that.

Robert Kirkman: Exactly.

AICN: Considering that even JJ Abrams, who created one of the most popular shows ever, had to shoot a pilot before the network committed to his new series it’s pretty spectacular that AMC’s going in sight unseen?

Robert Kirkman: I really have to give that to Frank Darabont. His vision for this show is so unique and the pilot script is so strong that I think that that’s why AMC got behind it so quickly. I think Darabont’s hand in this is the thing that is driving it. I think that he’s going to turn this into a pretty awesome television show.

AICN: I know this is going to come across totally as me kissing your ass, but he’s got such great material to work with.

Robert Kirkman: Look, I’m not denying that either!

AICN: (laughs) The character work in the comic is the reason why I love it so much and the reason why I have been an avid reader since issue 24. I love that there have been whole issues of people sitting in a room talking and I found that to be just as engaging as the action issues, where Michonne’s chopping off zombie heads left and right.

Robert Kirkman: Thanks man. I really appreciate that. I get complaints sometimes when I do those “We are going to sit in chairs in this issue” kind of issues, but it’s good to know that people appreciate that stuff because for me the fun of it is having people sit there and talk about what kind of cereal they like to eat while all of this zombie stuff is going on.

AICN: The reason why you can get away with that is because you have set up a world where nobody is safe, absolutely nobody is safe. There have been people that have died in your books that have blown me away. When you have those crazy moments… if somebody gets bit or killed, they are so effective because we have grown to know them in those quiet moments. Your material in Darabont’s hands I think is such a fantastic combination and that’s why I’m so excited for the show.

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, I think it’s going to be something that people haven’t really seen on television before, so that’s pretty exciting to me.

AICN: AMC has, obviously, been very supportive, but what can you get away with on AMC, in terms of graphic language and the intensity of the violence and stuff like that?

Robert Kirkman: You know, we just had a long meeting about this. There are some language restrictions. You’re not going to be dropping the F-bomb on AMC, which is fine. It’s not like if no one ever said the “f” word in WALKING DEAD the comic book, people would miss it.

I think the best way to put it is if you have ever watched BREAKING BAD…. they push the limit in BREAKING BAD quite often. There’s severed heads on the back of turtles, there’s liquefied bodies falling through ceilings, somebody just got their head blown off recently. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s very graphic nasty stuff that’s on BREAKING BAD all of the time and the thing that I was very excited to learn about AMC is that there is no limitation to how much of that you can have per episode or per hour or per minute.

AICN: Really?

Robert Kirkman: Anything you have seen in BREAKING BAD we can do every minute of our show. And then also there’s a lot of things you can get away with, because they are zombies, so you will be seeing all kinds of cool stuff that you would expect to see in THE WALKING DEAD: THE TV SHOW, so while it isn’t a pay cable channel, I think that people are still going to get what they want.

AICN: That’s good, because having a neutered zombie show is definitely not ideal, especially when you have people like KNB on board who can tear people up pretty good.

Robert Kirkman: Oh yeah. Nicotero has already been doing make-up tests on all of the zombies and there’s a bite test that I’ve seen. There’s a head shot test… So there’s all kinds of cool stuff that he’s already done on the show that just looks amazing.

AICN: I haven’t seen anything yet, but I’ve heard that Nicotero’s zombies are very Adlard-ish.

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, they are very true to the comics.

AICN: That makes me happy. I’m telling you, I’m a real deal fan. I have about four or five pieces of Charlie’s original art from the series.

Robert Kirkman : Only four or five? Come on, man…

AICN:I’m saving up for a good zombie splash. Those are a little bit pricey.

Robert Kirkman: I would recommend buying them before October.

AICN:Yeah, believe me I’ve been thinking about that. I noticed at WonderCon that all of THE WALKING DEAD art that you could find on the floor this year was significantly more expensive than it was last year.

Robert Kirkman: That’s unfortunate… for Charlie. (laughs)

AICN: Here’s a question that I know a lot of fans have asked… I’ve seen this pop up a lot in our talkback. Has there been any talk at all about shooting the show in black and white?

Robert Kirkman: No, no there isn’t. I have a concern that if people were flipping the channels and they saw something that was in black and white, they might think it was an old movie. It’s just something that’s usually not done on television and while I think it’s neat and I know Darabont likes black and white a lot, that’s why there’s a black and white version of THE MIST on the DVD and he wanted to do the movie in black and white originally. I don’t know that there’s going to be a black and white version of the show on the DVD. There might be, but it just doesn’t make sense as a television show for a lot of reasons.

One of the things that I’m really adamant about is I want this to be the best show possible and I don’t want there to be any kind of limitations on the show where they are trying to mimic the comic book. I think black and white would be limiting the show only for the reason of making it more like the comic book. And I kind of like that the show is going to be somewhat different than the comic, so that it will be a different experience for people who like the comic and read the comic. I’m fine with it being in color and I think it’s going to be great.

Now it’s not going to be a rainbowy bright color kind of show because I know they are doing a lot of visual stuff to kind of dull things down and not put a lot of bright colors on screen and make it visually interesting and fit the tone of the story, but it’s not going to be black and white.

AICN: I’m kind of in that camp with you as well. I think it’s a neat idea, but also at the end of the day I really do like the fact that these are two radically different mediums telling the story in different ways. Honestly the characters are what’s important, not so much the color palette of the world, so if the characters are brought over, that’s what matters. Do you think that the show is going to catch up to the books at some point? Or do you think that you are always going to be a step ahead of the show with the comics?

Robert Kirkman: Well, one of the many cool things about the show is that while it is going to follow the comic book to a pretty close degree, there’s going to be things that happen in the show that have happened in the comic and most of the characters are there and if the characters aren’t there initially, there will be more characters from the book added in as we go on, but the show is going to have new characters that aren’t in the comic. It’s going to have differences in the storyline and so there’s going to be things in the comic that it just never touches on and it’s really going to be “There’s the television story and then there’s the comic book story,” so as far as catching up to the comic series, it’s not really going to be possible because as time goes on they are not going to be really following the same story.

Now we will probably eventually see The Governor because that is a big part of the comic book. So, there’s cool stuff like that that will definitely be making into the show if we continue on, but it’s not going to follow the comic book story for story. So, it’s probably not going to really catch up to it and hopefully it will go in a completely new direction, so that it will be two separate stories that people can enjoy together.

AICN:I guess the last thing that we should probably talk about regarding the TV show is the cast, which is starting to bit by bit come out. I think the last ones I saw were Jeff DeMunn and Laurie Holden coming on board. I think those are really interesting people. I like that they are Darabont regulars. Have you gotten to weigh in at all? Has Frank asked your opinion on any of this stuff or is this kind of off in his world?

Robert Kirkman: I got to see most of the screen tests and a lot of the readings and I saw the different actors that tried out for the different roles and I would kind of hang back and enjoy them and let Gale Anne Hurde and AMC and Frank… You know, they know acting and they know actors and they are the ones actually making the show. I had input, but I wasn’t really going to come in and tell them “I like this guy” because I don’t know anything about acting! “That guy” could be really horrible! I know what I like and I know what I don’t like, but I’m no expert.

So basically they would come to me and they would say… for instance with Andrew Lincoln “This guy is really great. We really like him. Do you see him as Rick? What do you think about him?” In the case of Andrew, I was like “He’s perfect.” His screen test was great. He’s a really good actor. He’s not too terribly recognizable, so it’s not like I’m going to be sitting there “Oh no, that’s not Rick, I’ve seen him in other things,” so he was perfect and I responded and said “Yeah, that guy’s awesome. I would totally love it if he was Rick.”

So they cast him. Now maybe they did that just because of me, you know. Maybe I got that guy the part, but probably not. (laughs) So I was definitely involved and I basically loved everyone that they picked and so I don’t know how influential I was on the casting at all.

I think Jon Bernthal is excellent, Sarah Wayne Callies is great, and Jeffrey DeMunn is awesome. I was so thrilled. He was great in THE MIST, so yeah I’m really excited about the cast. I can’t wait to meet all of these people and annoy the shit out of them on the set. It’s going to be awesome!

AICN:(laughs) And you get that right too. “This is mine suckers, you’re going to have to put up with me!”

Robert Kirkman: (laughs) I’m going to see if I can get a photo of me wearing Dale’s…Jeffrey DeMunn, who I guess I just revealed is playing Dale, which for some reason they never printed out and people were speculating as to who he was playing.

AICN:Yeah, well who else is he going to play, really?

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, it’s pretty obvious, but I’ve got to get that hat. I’ve got to wear that hat!

AICN: Oh yeah, that little fisherman hat or whatever? The kind of grandfatherly fisherman hat that he wears all of the time, yeah.

Robert Kirkman: Yeah!

AICN:So outside of the show what else do you have on your plate right now?

Robert Kirkman: What else have I got on my plate? Well, I’ve got all kinds of stuff going on. I’ve got my INVINCIBLE series still going strong. INVINCIBLE and THE WALKING DEAD will be hitting their 75th issues in July. They are running a little behind scheduled right now. I think WALKING DEAD is actually going to catch up and ship on time, but INVINCIBLE is probably going to ship in late August. But we’ve got the big 75th issues going and INVINCIBLE’s got the big Viltrumite War storyline going, which has been building up in the books since issue one. Do you read INVINCIBLE at all?

AICN: I have read the first two of the graphic novels. I picked those up around the same time that I picked up WALKING DEAD, but there seemed to be more INVINCIBLE graphic novels for some reason and I was poor and I had to make a choice.

Robert Kirkman: For shame!

AICN: I liked what I read!

Robert Kirkman: Yeah, but I have an INVINCIBLE spin-off called THE GAUDIANS OF THE GLOBE that’s coming out in August, so that’s coming up and my ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN series is coming to a close with issue 25 and I’ve got that book that I co-created with Todd McFarlane called HAUNT that has been going strong. It sill be reaching it’s one year anniversary in October and we are going to be doing something special for that, so you know I’ve got a bit of stuff going on. I’m sure I forgot some things, but you know.

AICN: So, what you are basically saying is you’re just lazy.

Robert Kirkman: Pretty much. (laughs)

AICN:Cool man. That sounds great and I’ll have to catch up on INVINCIBLE, so next time we talk I wont be so embarrassed for having not read it or been completely caught up.

Robert Kirkman: That’s all right. It starts getting good on the third volume, so give it a shot.

AICN:Nice. Well good luck with the series. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it. And hey… All I’m saying is I was a zombie for George Romero… If you guys want a fat geek zombie, I’m around.

Robert Kirkman: (laughs) Which movie were you in?

AICN: I was in LAND OF THE DEAD.

Robert Kirkman: Oh cool. Well, good luck with it.

AICN:Cool, man. Again, good luck to you guys. I really think this show has a lot of potential.

Robert Kirkman: I think it’s going to be great. I think people are going to be really blown away by it, so I’m pretty stoked.

AICN: Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Robert Kirkman: All right cool, thanks a lot and maybe I’ll see you on set.

In a brilliant piece of casting, James McAvoy has been cast as a young Charles Xavier aka Professor X in the Matthew Vaughn directed X-men prequel First Class.

“First Class will chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.” according to the studio behind the film, FOX.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) has worked with Rockstar Games to make an original short film for the release of 'Red Dead Redemption' on consoles. The short uses in-game graphics to tell the tale of John Marston, the protagonist of the game.

The film will be released on the 29th of May at 12:00am on Fox.

The 30 minute short film, created and directed by John Hillcoat (the director of The Proposition and The Road), chronicles a slice-in-time of protagonist John Marston as he tracks down his former fellow outlaw and friend, Bill Williamson. Along the way, Marston encounters many of Red Dead Redemption's eclectic cast of dreamers, misfits and liars.

UPDATE: Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures and South Korean media company CJ Entertainment are coming on board to help produce the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Newberry Medal-winning young-adult novel "The Graveyard Book."

Last we herd the adaption of Neil Gaiman 'Graveyard Book' hit a bump with the demise of Miramax.

MTV got a chance to get an update from Neil himself about the adaption which is still in the scripting stage as he is waiting to see a new draft from Neil Jordan.

Here is the second trailer for 'Jonah Hex' based on the DC Comic hero, it stars Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich & Michael Fassbender. It opens June 18th in the US & 24th September for us here in Ireland and the UK.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Nothing is what it seems in this Casablanca-style international thriller set in the ancient Chinese city a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. Secret Agent Paul Soames (John Cusack) has just arrived to investigate the murder of his best friend, only to become quickly immersed in a web of conspiracy and lies that beset the city.

Shadowed by a Japanese intelligence officer Tanaka (Ken Watanabe), Soames' investigation quickly centers on a charismatic local gangster, Anthony Lanting (Chow Yun-Fat) - and Lanting's beautiful wife, Anna (Gong Li). Before long, Soames and Anna are involved in an affair that will put everything they have at stake. As national loyalties are traded fast-and-loose for those of the heart, Soames and Anna must race to solve the mystery and make it out of occupied China before the city's collapse.

Disney/Pixar have released a new clip and 2 featurettes for director Lee Unkrich's 'Toy Story 3,' each shows the fate of Andy's Toys as they end up in Sunnyside. Wired has a great article on how pixar made 'Toy Story 3'

The film will be hitting 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D screens on June 18 in the US and 23 July for Ireland and the UK.

'Logan's Run' is being remade by one time 'Alien' prequel director Carl Rinsch. The orginal film was releaed in 1976 starred Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett, directed by Michael Anderson the film is based on the novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.

The novel depicts a dystopia-ageist future society in which population and the consumption of resources is managed and maintained in equilibrium by demanding the death of everyone upon reaching a particular age. The story follows the actions of Logan, a Sandman charged with enforcing the rule, as he tracks down and kills citizens who "run" from society's lethal demand — only to end up "running" himself.

John Hillcoat is attached to direct an adaptation of 'The Revenant' by Michael Punke, in talks to step into the shoes of frontiersman Hugh Glass is Christian Bale accordinging to scriptwriter Mark L. Smith.

When asked about future projects he told us about "The Revenant, which is a period action/revenge piece that Anonymous Content is producing," he tells BD exclusively adding some huge news. "John Hillcoat (The Road) is attached to direct, and Christian Bale is in talks to star."

The Revenant tells a story of nearly unimaginable human endurance over 3,000 miles of uncharted American wilderness, spanning what is today the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Based on the real life of fur trapper Hugh Glass, The Revenant recounts the toll of envy and betrayal, and the power of obsession and vengeance. Punke's novel opens in 1823, when thirty-six-year-old Hugh Glass joins the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. on a venture into perilous, unexplored territory.

After being savagely mauled by a grizzly bear, his nearly lifeless body is left in the care of two volunteers from the company-John Fitzgerald, a ruthless mercenary, and young Jim Bridger, the future "King of the Mountain Men." When Indians approach their camp, Fitzgerald and Bridger abandon Glass. Worse yet, they rob the wounded man of his weapons and tools-the very things that might have given him a chance on his own. Deserted, defenseless, and furious, Glass vows his survival. And his revenge.

This is the fifth minisode of six, written by show creator Alan Ball. They serve to bridge the gap between season two and three, while also serving to promote the upcoming season which will air June 13 on HBO in the US.

Also added below isba new trailer for the upcoming season, which will air June 13 on HBO in the US.Minisode #5 - Bill

'The Killer Inside Me' the story of handsome, unassuming small town sheriff’s deputy Lou Ford (Casey Affleck). A quiet charmer of his idyllic West Texas town, Ford has a simple life and a pretty girl (Kate Hudson) to come home to. But when the job brings him face to face with a gorgeous prostitute (Jessica Alba) on the edge of town, Ford’s fragile world cracks – unbridling his own dark urges. In THE KILLER INSIDE ME’S blacker–than–noir universe, nothing is ever what it seems.

Legendary Pictures have announced that it will develop Electronic Arts and Bioware's insanely addictive video game series 'Mass Effect' into a feature film, Fox news will not be happy. Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare for the Xbox 360/PC.

The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player, assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard, setting out to explore the Galaxy on a starship, the SSV Normandy. 2 of the proposed trilogy of been released with massive success. The official statement is below:

Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that Legendary Pictures, whose successful co-productions include The Dark Knight, 300, Clash of the Titans, The Hangover and Watchmen, has acquired theatrical feature film rights to the hit videogame franchise, Mass Effect. The project will also fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing agreement with Warner Bros., who will distribute the film worldwide. The producers are in discussions with Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor) to draft a screenplay based on the epic science fiction game series. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the film with Avi and Ari Arad. BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will serve as executive producers, as will Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson.

BioWare’s epic science fiction series takes place in the year 2183 and follows Commander Shepard of the SS Normandy who leads a team on a mission to defeat an ancient alien race that invades the galaxy every 50,000 years, wiping out all organic life. The most recent game in the series, Mass Effect 2, was released in January of 2010, and earned rave reviews from critics worldwide.*

“Mass Effect is a tremendous property ripe for translation to the big screen,” said Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures. “Mass Effect is a prime example of the kind of source material we at Legendary like to develop; it has depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story. This coupled with Avi and Ari producing and the skills of a great team adapting the screenplay, are the start of turning this smash videogame based property into a successful feature film.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Legendary,” said producer Avi Arad. “EA and BioWare are terrific partners who have created a brilliant piece of fiction with a universe filled with amazing aliens and technology. More importantly, though, they created a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasizes the need for all cultures to learn to work together. All this magic is presented in a fast paced action-adventure that makes for the best kind of movie experience.”

“At BioWare, we’ve always thought of Mass Effect as having the depth, emotion and plot twists perfectly suited for an adaptation to a motion picture,” said Casey Hudson. “With Legendary and Avi and Ari Arad attached, we believe that the Mass Effect movie will be an extraordinary entertainment event that realizes our vision for the franchise and thrills fans.”

Pat O’Brien, VP of EA Entertainment added “The mission of EA Entertainment is to take key EA properties and find additional ways to bring these properties to people. We can’t think of a better fit than Mass Effect and we couldn’t be more excited to bring Commander Shepard’s adventures to the silver screen.”

Mass Effect 2 is available on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC. Assets are available at info.ea.com. For more information on Mass Effect, go to http://masseffect.bioware.com/

Monday, May 24, 2010

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known. And the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way. Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as 'Metro Man' (Brad Pitt), an invincible hero until the day Megamind actually kills him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans.

Suddenly, Megamind has no purpose. A supervillain without a superhero. He realizes that achieving his life's ambition is the worst thing that ever happened to him. Megamind decides that the only way out of his rut is to create a new hero opponent called 'Titan,' who promises to be bigger, better and stronger than Metro Man ever was. Pretty quickly Titan starts to think it's much more fun to be a villain than a good guy. Except Titan doesn't just want to rule the world, he wants to destroy it. Now, Megamind must decide: can he defeat his own diabolical creation? Can the world's smartest man make the smart decision for once? Can the evil genius become the unlikely hero of his own story

Jack Rebney is the most famous man you’ve never heard of — an RV salesman whose hilarious, foul-mouthed outbursts circulated underground on VHS tapes in the 90s before turning into a full-blown Internet phenomenon in 2005.

Today, the “Winnebago Man” has been seen by more than 20 million people worldwide, and is regarded as one of the first and funniest viral videos. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer goes in search of Rebney — and finds him living alone on a mountain top, unaware of his fame. Winnebago Man is a laugh-out-loud look at viral culture and an unexpectedly poignant tale of one man’s response to unintended celebrity.

Sam feels the need to mark their territory by destroying "the God Who Comes".

This is the fourth minisode of six, written by show creator Alan Ball. They serve to bridge the gap between season two and three, while also serving to promote the upcoming season which will air June 13 on HBO in the US.

BBC Comedy grabbed an exclusive chat with the toast of New Zealand's folk parody scene, Flight of The Conchords, during their tour of Britain. Bret and Jemaine take a trip down memory lane to recall their BBC radio series, back in the days when they used to play to twelve people instead of twelve thousand.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Disney have nabbed David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) to direct and writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!) to script a new big budget adaption of the Jules Verne classic story '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'.

THR reports that the Fincher/Burns take on the classic novel is described as being in the vein of 'Star Wars' or 'The Empire Strikes Back.' It will aim to be visually dazzling.

It’s 2015 and the most ambitious drilling project in history has reached deeper beneath the Earth’s crust than man has ever gone before – but now the ground itself is fighting back. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in a tiny mining village and find themselves plunged into a battle against a deadly danger from a bygone age.Next Time...